The past week saw President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running
mate, former central bank Governor Boediono, on the defensive as they
scrambled to fend off their rivals’ accusations that they were ardent
followers of neo-liberalism.

It didn’t really matter whether the majority of voters knew what the
term meant; the way the accusation was deftly made left the public
perceiving the duo as evil-doers unworthy of holding the nation’s
highest offices.

Golkar Party presidential hopeful Jusuf Kalla fired the first salvo,
citing Boediono’s refusal while coordinating minister for the economy to
give the go-ahead for a power project and Jakarta’s monorail plan as
prime examples of the Australian-trained economist’s true leanings.

Ever the savvy campaigner, Vice President Kalla repeated the “Boediono
the neo-liberalist” mantra for maximum impact and got away with it.
Kalla’s allies joined in the fray and, for good measure, dubbed Boediono
“an IMF and World Bank lackey.”

Kalla, however, didn’t give the public the complete story, as the two
infrastructure projects actually involved private enterprises seeking
foreign loans with a government guarantee.

Understandably, Boediono balked at the idea, arguing that the laws
clearly stipulate a project is either state or private funded. He reminded
Kalla that the days of the New Order regime, when private projects were
funded by foreign loans guaranteed by the state, were a thing of the past.

We can be sure of seeing the presidential campaign heat up in ways that
Indonesians have never experienced before

Does Boediono’s strict by-the-book approach entitle the likes of
Kalla to call him a neo-liberalist? Of course not, but the accusations
left Boediono having to make rebuttals instead of promoting his views on
the economy in ways that would strengthen Yudhoyono’s chances on July 8.

Boediono has made it clear that he’s no neo-liberal, much less the
International Monetary Fund or World Bank’s man in Indonesia. He may be
conservative and unimaginative to the extent that he adheres to
time-honored economic principles, but few of his students now occupying
key positions fault him for that.

Indeed, being an economist who believes less government is better and
who extols the virtues of a free market doesn’t make him a neo-liberal,
any more than a politician who believes in a civilian government finds the
military reprehensible.

The pre-presidential campaign period has now taken an even nastier
tone. The nation had hardly finished mourning the 101 people who died in
the crash of an Air Force Hercules C-130 last week when Kalla, again, went
on the offensive.

Now, here’s a chess player who dearly holds that a good offense is
the best defense. Citing Defense Ministry budget cuts as the cause of the
crash, Kalla blamed the government, which he is still part of as vice
president, for undermining the country’s military hardware.

Even by his standards, Kalla was completely off the mark this time.
First, the cause of the accident has yet to be determined — whether it
was due to human error, technical reasons or weather conditions. In any
case, the budget cuts he mentioned didn’t include operations and
maintenance costs for existing equipment.

Also, whether the antiquated C-130s — once used for the government’s
transmigration program, flying people from overpopulated Java to the outer
islands — form part of the country’s weapons systems is highly
debatable.

Curiously, Kalla found an ally in two-star Army Gen. Tono Suratman, the
military commander of South Sumatra, who somehow found time to support
Kalla’s contention that defense budget cuts were partly to blame for the
tragedy.

Now, why would an Army officer comment on Air Force matters, never mind
the dubious reasons behind the decision of certain media outlets to give
his opinion coverage?

It turns out that this is the same Tono Suratman who was one of the
senior military officers on the ground during the bloody post-East Timor
referendum violence. His superior at the time was none other than Wiranto,
then a four-star general and commander of the Armed Forces, who is now
Kalla’s running mate.

Tono and other senior officers were brought to trial for their alleged
involvement in the melee but were later acquitted due to military
pressure, according to insiders.

It’s difficult to prove if Tono’s comments were part of a concerted
effort by rivals to blame Yudhoyono for policies that may or may not have
led to the Hercules crash.

What is increasingly apparent is that we can be sure of seeing the
presidential campaign heat up in ways that Indonesians have never
experienced before.